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There is no doubt that this play about rentboys has the
authentic stamp of personal knowledge on the part of its writer.
Kevin McGreal spent 12 months researching the marginalised street
workers who are the subject of his play. Director CaAtherine
Meredith shared his interest, having spent years researching sex
workers while writing a script herself.

The result is a welcome absence of stereotyping or overt
moralising. The three characters are individuals with various
motivations for behaviours that might be judged as repulsive, and
certainly as self-destructive.

The production has an irritatingly slow pace at times, but this
reproduces an aimlessness in the characters' lives. They work the
streets for money to live, but the nature of this work is so brief
and inherently anti-social that there are too many empty hours in
the days. And time to reflect is the last thing they want.

Ronnie (McGreal) has been on the game for eight years after
blaming himself for the drug overdose death of his wife.
Twenty-year-old Peter (Nick Ioannidis) is a younger version of
Ronnie, still eager to explore this seedy lifestyle.

Tracey (Juanita Davis) has been Ronnie's friend and paying
sexual partner throughout his rentboy life. She is wealthy, largely
idle and an old hand at paying for her sexual enjoyment. They get
involved in a murky threesome that demonstrates they are as
addicted to sex as they are to drugs. Apart from the money, what is
notable is that sex is a kind of value-free zone; in Tracey's case,
apparently the only real pleasure she has.

The play has a number of scenes that are pre- or post-coital,
and become tedious. The subject may have its sensational side, but
McGreal's writing is mired in commonplace realism, its dialogue as
limited as the characters' knowledge of themselves.

It certainly creates a sense of individuality, but offers few
insights beyond the merely observed but not analysed experience.
The acting, alas, is as limited in its range and effect as is the
script.